More than two dozen parcels of property now lie outside — but are completely surrounded by — Longmont city limits.

Tuesday night, city council members will discuss whether staff should proceed with annexing some or all of those enclaves, which the law allows the city to do with or without the owners' consent.

The 27 properties, scattered throughout the city, are now unincorporated areas in Boulder and Weld counties.

The largest parcel, according to a map staff provided to council, appears to be the Fox Hill Club, a private golf course at 1400 E. Colo. 119. Pat Miller, Fox Hill's general manager, could not be reached for comment Monday.

The city owns one of the properties, a parcel on the southeast corner of Union Reservoir and Weld County Road 26.

"As the city limits have grown over time, enclaves of unincorporated parcels have been created," principal city planner Brien Schumacher stated in a memo for the council meeting. "Unincorporated parcels that have been completely surrounded by the city for at least three years are eligible for annexation to the city under state statutes."

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The 27 parcels the staff has identified for such potential annexations meet that three-year time frame, or soon will, according to Schumacher.

"Annexation of enclaves does not require property owner consent, but typically property owners are contacted to inform them that their properties are being considered for annexation," he wrote.

Schumacher on Monday said the private owners of the enclaves up for council discussion have not yet been notified of the possibility of annexation.

"We kind of wanted to have a preliminary review by the council, to see if they're even interested in considering" annexing enclaves, before reaching out to property owners, he said.

Potential benefits of annexing enclaves is moving the properties into the city would increase Longmont's land-use controls over how those properties are developed and used, Schumacher said.

Also, the city can collect municipal property taxes on annexed properties, as well as municipal sales taxes if taxable goods are sold from any of the properties, some of which Schumacher said have existing commercial establishments.

Annexations could provide more consistent provision of local police, fire and other emergency-response services — including first-response services Longmont can already provide through intergovernmental mutual-aid agreements with the Boulder and Weld county sheriff's offices and rural fire protection districts, he said.

Longmont could provide the water, sewer and electric services for current and future developments on the properties, utility infrastructure Schumacher said he did not think the city is providing now to most of the properties in question.

"Potential issues of enclave annexations" could include the condition of existing water, sewer and electric infrastructure on the properties, and the costs of extending city utility services to those properties, he wrote in his memo for Tuesday's meeting.

Another issue, Schumacher said, could be existing uses of the properties, or structures already in place on them, that might be illegal or non-conforming under Longmont zoning and land development codes.

If the parcels were annexed, they likely would be zoned in municipal residential, mixed-use or nonresidential categories based on land-use designations assigned via Envision Longmont, the city's comprehensive plan.

At least two of the 27 parcels are now the sites of Boulder County-licensed retail marijuana establishments — the Native Roots shop at 19 S. Sunset St. and Euflora Recreational Marijuana at 250 S. Main St.

Neither of those stores were among the four companies the city approved for licenses to operate recreational marijuana sales facilities at four locations inside city limits.

Schumacher noted that if city council is interested in annexing enclaves with existing marijuana establishments on them, it likely also would need to amend municipal code to account for additional retail locations beyond the maximum of four the code now allows.

In addition to the Fox Hill country club and the two marijuana establishments, current uses of properties on the list of 27 enclaves include single-family detached homes and outbuildings, several outdoor storage sites, a self-storage warehouse, a salvage yard and the Twin Peaks Charter Academy's athletic field.

Current Boulder or Weld County zoning of the enclaves ranges from agricultural to rural residential to commercial to general industrial.

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